You want fries with that?

Doing the research for this project was the fun part, and also the reason for my New Year’s resolution.

It’s a place to hide things, a special place for a special object, a memory box. For a special person.

It started out simple enough, 2 sycamore bowl blanks, 1of walnut, 1 Douglas Fir leftover from a waterbed frame years ago, and a short piece of taphole maple board.

First thing was to turn the 2 bun pieces to the same rough size. Next up was turning the burger section to size and creating a glue joint.

For the cheese, I drilled a hole in the blank, and glued a dowel halfway in. That way I could reverse it in my chuck, going back and forth cutting the inside and outside to rough shape.

Now I started to get the cheese to look like it’s melted . I used a coping saw and files for most of it. I kept setting it in place and checking the look until I got what I was after.

Now to cook the meat. I used a big rasp to rough the edges. At times I would hold the wood in one hand and the tool in the other, and then I would lay the tool on the workbench and just beat it. I used the teeth and the edge of the rasp. I used a soldering iron to make burn marks.

I painted the cheese with acrylic paint. I really wanted to use a wood in it’s natural color. All the yellow woods I have used turn brown. Any input here is greatly appreciated.

I glued the lower bun, the burger and cheese together to hollow the inside. I made sure to stay inside the glue joint on the lower bun.

I’m always cautious when I cut the cheese, but I was really on alert this time. A catch here would mean starting over. I got my skews good and sharp. made a clean cut , and it was easy going after that.

With the bottom hollowed it was time to fit the lid. It is a tight fit here, but it loosened after sanding. I did not want a tight lid.With 3 woods at different thickness I wanted to prevent trouble down the road.

I made a jam chuck to clean up the top of the bun. A tenon on the bun is a tight fit into a recess on the chuck, with doublesided tape inside for backup. I keep tailstock support as long as possible.

I used hand tools and a dremel to shape the buns and remove the chuck hold. After gluing the burger to the plate I put on some red acrylic for catsup, and later a finish of wipe on poly.